Vintage Racing Photos

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Richard Petty "fixin'" the vinyl roof of his Plymouth Road Runner at the 1968 Daytona 500... and yes, those are boots.
 
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Early 80's, Petty hauler is a Kenworth "K Whopper" K 100 aerodyne on the left and Harry Gant's Mack cruiseliner hauler on the right.. my first truck I drove over the road was an x Petty hauler, Freightliner with a Cat.
 
StandOnIt said:
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Early 80's, Petty hauler is a Kenworth "K Whopper" K 100 aerodyne on the left and Harry Gant's Mack cruiseliner hauler on the right.. my first truck I drove over the road was an x Petty hauler, Freightliner with a Cat.
Click to expand...

Awesome. :D

Looks like a Wrangler Jeans hauler on the far far right.
 
Just had to share this picture. Auto racing in general has been on the decline for a long time. It's still alive and kicking, but all us fans have seen the smaller crowds (which is also evident in the big NASCAR races we see on TV). There are all kinds of reasons why, but one small part is how far we've come with safety. While it may sound a little morbid, part of the popularity back in the day was because the drivers were indeed death defying daredevils, and the races were promoted as such. Nobody ever wants someone to get hurt or die, but back then, the possibility that it could happen was part of the drama and excitement of the sport.

While the sport used to be so big, I certainly don't want to go back to days like this. I would NOT want to lose friends on the track.

(Unknown photo credit)
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I was watching the start of the Indianapolis 500, on national TV, 1964.
This was the TV view leader in the foreground,
Still on lap 1, McDonald hit the wall and exploded
Back then they ran high octane gasoline and were rolling bombs.
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Here is a tighter shot of McDonald's crash/explosion
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McDonald's car goes across the track and Eddie Sachs is involved and his car explodes.

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Live, national TV, both drivers didn't make it. I will never forget it. Racing used to be completely different, safety was thought of as something for sissies, drivers survived or died trying. It actually got even more dangerous as the cars got faster and lighter. It wasn't until the mid to late 70's that Jackie Stewart quit racing in protest because of the conditions and other drivers joined the fight along with the fans who had grown to love their drivers and they were dying off at an alarming rate. That is why drivers like A.J. Foyt and Mario are hero's to so many, they survived, so many didn't make it. A.J. Foyt won the race BTW.
 
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Nascar banned rear exhaust somewhere around 1969 and made the cars have side exit exhaust. The reason given was because it gave an unfair advantage to the leading car when a car behind was drafting, it heated up the trailing car. The brain twister is lately Nascar has now made it almost impossible to draft...but no rear exhaust..go figure. Here are the Petty's experimenting with rear exhaust before it was banned. They didn't notice any difference in power so they went back to side exhaust.

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John Knaus, Chad's father, he raced ASA and ARTGO as well as other Wisconsin tracks.

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Glenn Wood before he decided to be a car owner
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Dan Gurney (left) and Brock Yates pose with the 1971 Cannonball-winning Ferrari Daytona at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California.
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Marcel Renault was the co-founder of the automaker that bears his name to this day, he used to build and race his own cars before a tragic accident in the 1903 Paris-Madrid Race.


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StandOnIt said:
I was watching the start of the Indianapolis 500, on national TV, 1964.
This was the TV view leader in the foreground,
Still on lap 1, McDonald hit the wall and exploded
Back then they ran high octane gasoline and were rolling bombs.
64boom.jpg


Here is a tighter shot of McDonald's crash/explosion
64macd.jpg


McDonald's car goes across the track and Eddie Sachs is involved and his car explodes.

64wrk3.jpg


Live, national TV, both drivers didn't make it. I will never forget it. Racing used to be completely different, safety was thought of as something for sissies, drivers survived or died trying. It actually got even more dangerous as the cars got faster and lighter. It wasn't until the mid to late 70's that Jackie Stewart quit racing in protest because of the conditions and other drivers joined the fight along with the fans who had grown to love their drivers and they were dying off at an alarming rate. That is why drivers like A.J. Foyt and Mario are hero's to so many, they survived, so many didn't make it. A.J. Foyt won the race BTW.
Click to expand...

The following quotes are directly from the closing link.

The first public declaration of Eddie Sachs' death was made by the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway public address announcer, Tom Carnegie, who said: "It is with deepest regret that we make this announcement. Driver Eddie Sachs was fatally injured in the accident on the main straightaway."

Seconds later, the late Sid Collins, the voice of the 500 on the IMS radio network, gave this spontaneous eulogy.

"You heard the announcement from the public address system. There's not a sound. Men are taking off their hats. People are weeping. There are over 300,000 fans here not moving. Disbelieving.

Some men try to conquer life in a number of ways. These days of our outer space attempts some men try to conquer the universe. Race drivers are courageous men who try to conquer life and death and they calculate their risks. And with talking with them over the years I think we know their inner thoughts in regards to racing. They take it as part of living. No one is moving on the race track. They're standing silently.

"A race driver who leaves this earth mentally when he straps himself into the ****pit to try what for him is the biggest conquest he can make is aware of the odds and Eddie Sachs played the odds. He was serious and frivolous. He was fun. He was a wonderful gentleman. He took much needling and he gave much needling. Just as the astronauts do perhaps.

"These boys on the race track ask no quarter and they give none. If they succeed they're a hero and if they fail, they tried. And it was Eddie's desire, I'm sure, and will to try with everything he had, which he always did. So the only healthy way perhaps we can approach the tragedy of the loss of a friend like Eddie Sachs is to know that he would have wanted us to face it as he did. As it has happened, not as we wish it would have happened. It is God's will I'm sure and we must accept that.

"We are all speeding toward death at the rate of 60 minutes every hour, the only difference is we don't know how to speed faster and Eddie Sachs did. So since death has a thousand or more doors, Eddie Sachs exits this earth in a race car. Knowing Eddie I assume that's the way he would have wanted it. Byron said "who the Gods love die young."

"Eddie was 37. To his widow Nance we extend our extreme sympathy and regret. And to his two children. This boy won the pole here in 1961 and 1962. He was a proud race driver. Well, as we do at Indianapolis and in racing, as the World Champion Jimmy Clark I'm sure would agree as he's raced all over the world, the race continues. Unfortunately today without Eddie Sachs. And we'll be restarting it in just a few moments."

http://articles.mcall.com/2014-05-1...ash-2-20140517_1_race-track-race-car-indy-500
 
StandOnIt said:
I was watching the start of the Indianapolis 500, on national TV, 1964.
This was the TV view leader in the foreground,
Still on lap 1, McDonald hit the wall and exploded
Back then they ran high octane gasoline and were rolling bombs.
64boom.jpg


Here is a tighter shot of McDonald's crash/explosion
64macd.jpg


McDonald's car goes across the track and Eddie Sachs is involved and his car explodes.

64wrk3.jpg


Live, national TV, both drivers didn't make it. I will never forget it. Racing used to be completely different, safety was thought of as something for sissies, drivers survived or died trying. It actually got even more dangerous as the cars got faster and lighter. It wasn't until the mid to late 70's that Jackie Stewart quit racing in protest because of the conditions and other drivers joined the fight along with the fans who had grown to love their drivers and they were dying off at an alarming rate. That is why drivers like A.J. Foyt and Mario are hero's to so many, they survived, so many didn't make it. A.J. Foyt won the race BTW.
Click to expand...

I dont remember watching any of sixties 500s, I wish I had. The earliest stuff I remember was around 1970 or 71.

I always feel like a boy around an old WW2 vet, I would shake all of their hands and buy them all a lunch if could and sincerly try to say thank you the best way I could.

But the old racers always get my respect too. I have read about the Donnie Mactavish crash but I have never had the heart to watch it. I dont celebrate the gruesome side, but there was still some profoundly incredible about those races.
Words just dont do them justice imo.
 
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Ralph Moody, Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen. The infamous Holman Moody Ford team
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Holman & Moody's innovations included the fuel cell, full-floater rear axle, on-board fire systems, quick change disk brakes and much more. The 1966 Holman & Moody Fairlane is the basis for today's NASCAR racecars. Future crew chiefs who learned their trade at Holman & Moody include Robert Yates, Waddell Wilson, Keith Dorton, Jake Elder, Junior Johnson, Bondi Long, Bud Moore, the Wood Brothers, and Smokey Yunick.

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Ray Fox owner and Buddy Baker 67 Dodge.

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DAYTONA BEACH, FL — 1960s: A rare photo of master mechanics, car builders, innovators and NASCAR Cup car owners Henry “Smokey” Yunick (L) and Ray Fox (R) working together in one of their Daytona Beach shops. Both had a pseudo dislike for the other, but in an unusual twist, Yunick’s son Smokey, Jr. went to work in Fox’s shop while Fox’s son Ray, Jr. worked for Yunick. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

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HAMPTON, GA - APRIL 5, 1964: Car owner Ray Fox changes the left front tire on Junior JohnsonÕs Dodge during the Atlanta 500 at Atlanta International Raceway. Johnson went on to finish fourth in the race. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

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1990: After his days as a car owner and engine builder, Ray Fox joined NASCAR as an official. His job was inspecting engines.
 
Sneaky Penske playing musical cars.:p

Notice the numbers for each car, 15 & 16. Each car in the photos below wears the opposite number than it did in the actual race.
The car with the vent window (wind wing) in the door is the '67 lightweight car from the previous season. It was under minimum
weight and did not get run through tech inspection. They ran the '68 through tech inspection twice by changing the car number
in a closed airplane hangar between each inspection. A risky proposition but they pulled it off successfully.

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Judy Kondratieff, Janet Guthrie, Sharlene Seavey and Rosemary Smith at Sebring l. to r. Janet Guthrie, Donna Mae Mims and Liane Engeman / Sebring 1969
 
Buddy Baker and Richard Petty at Ontario in 72
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1960 Daytona 500...Lee Petty
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1968..Dan Gurney
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1971...David Pearson
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